Energy2D

Energy3D

Energy3D presents an easy-to-use 3D user interface for designing and making model buildings. Students can build a house,
a skyscraper, and even an entire village. Energy3D allows students to “print out” a design and use it to build a physical model.

SimBuilding

(10/21/2015) SimBuilding is a simulation game for teaching building science,
currently under development at the Concord Consortium. SimBuilding is based on JavaScript and WebGL.

Screenshots of SimBuilding

Energy3D in Colombia

(10/9/2015) Camilo Vieira Mejia, a PhD student of Purdue University, brought our Energy3D software to a workshop of Clubes de Ciencia,
an initiative where graduate students come to Colombia and share science and engineering concepts with high school students
from small towns around Antioquia. According to him, students "are truly enjoying Energy3D!"

Students in Colombia use Energy3D

Put engineering design processes under a "big data microscope"

(10/1/2013) How do people learn engineering design?
How do we know they are learning?
What are the conceptual and procedural bottlenecks?
What are the best instructional strategies to overcome these bottlenecks?
Before we can answer these questions, we must develop
methodologies for capturing and measuring student performance. Utilizing our Energy3D CAD tool, we are developing computational process
analytics that can reveal student learning patterns from what they do, what they make, and what they say.

Energy3D in the classroom

InfraMation Keynote Address

(11/6/2012) Dr. Charles Xie delivered a keynote speech at the Opening Plenary of
InfraMation,
the world's largest conference on infrared imaging. Charles presented several original scientific discoveries based on IR imaging
and proposed the concept of educational imaging. We are proud to be at the leading edge of applied IR imaging and glad that our
contributions have been recognized by the industry.

Download our hand-out model house

(4/28/2012) The following images link to two PDF files that contain a template for cutting out and assembling the model house
shown to the right. They just have different textures. Choose one to download and print. Then assemble the house yourself.
For best results, print them on cardstock. Using "Legal" size cardstock will result in a larger
house that may be easier to build. If you want to design and make your own model houses, go to
our Energy3D website to download the software, watch a tutorial video, and get started!

A hand-out model house for the 2012 USA Science and Engineering Festival, April 28-29, Washington, DC
(Click here to download the Energy3D model for this house.)

A village of model houses for the 2012 USA Science & Engineering Festival

(4/20/2012) Huge thanks to Jeanne Hurtz, our village of model houses is ready! Click an image to see an enlarged picture.

One day at Fitchburg High School

(2/18/2012) Fifteen students from Fitchburg and Gardner in Massachusetts participated in a one-day activity at Fitchburg High School hosted by Mount Wachusett Community
College. They designed model houses using our Energy3D software, printed and assembled them, and performed energy inspection using IR cameras. According to Andrew Goodwin, Director
of the Gear Up Program at Mount Wachusett Community College, "it really was a great activity for the kids and I know they surely appreciate it and had a great time. I know that
I was really impressed by the caliber of the program and I hope that in the future you will be willing to come out and do other activities with our group."

Teacher workshop 2012

(1/20/2012) Teachers from Arlington High School, Bromfield School, Nashoba Regional High School, and North Reading High School
participated in a professional development workshop to prepare for our large-scale field tests in the spring. Each teacher ran the
experiments and simulations. Each also designed and built a model house. In the field tests scheduled in the spring with
the classes of these teachers, we will test our research hypothesis that CAD/CAM tools empower students to explore the design space more
efficiently and more deeply.

CAD/CAM in the classroom

(12/10/2011) In a pilot test, 15 students in an engineering class at Arlington High School used our Energy3D software to design
and make model houses. This pilot test was used to examine how well Energy3D worked in the classroom.
Below are all the computer models the five teams designed with Energy3D and the corresponding model houses made using Energy3D's printing feature.

Miscellaneous

Student Reactions

“I liked watching the simulations, you could see what actually happens — you can't see it like that in a book.”—Arlington High School, 2012

“The 3D designing was very helpful as we could customize the house as we wanted to or as we needed to.”—Arlington High School, 2012

“When you could watch the sun, it was cool to see how it would affect the house.”—Arlington High School, 2012

“I enjoyed graphing temperature data with the Logger Lite data graph on the computer. I had never used such a program, but it was very easy to
get used to it and I quickly understood how to interpret the information on the graph and the relationships between the two temperature sensors used at times.”—Arlington High School, 2011

“I would have to say the part of the Engineering Energy Efficiency Project I enjoyed the most was seeing the drastic change in temperature minor
modifications made.”—Arlington High School, 2011

“I really enjoyed comparing my test results with other classmates. It made building the second model a competition to find out whose house was the
most energy efficient.”—Nashoba Regional High School, 2011

“I enjoyed building the house and watching the graphs. It was a little difficult because I didn't understand what was going on. But towards the end I got it.”—Nashoba Regional High School, 2011

“These pages gave me a visual understanding and comparison of conduction, convection, and radiation. The simulations were most helpful in developing this understanding.”—Belmont High School, 2010

Teacher Reactions

“This was one of the best and most memorable professional development experiences I have had in many decades as an educator. Every participant I spoke to felt respected and that they had many useful ways of
participating and contributing, and were sent away with an abundance of immediately useful resources.”—Participant of the Rockport Workshop, 2017

“Thought it was one of the best conferences I have ever attended and gave some real world projects that can be implemented in my school... the Consortium was great at presenting the info in a useful way.”—Participant of the Rockport Workshop, 2017

“The workshop was one of the most useful I have ever attended and I have been teaching for 17 years.”—Participant of the Rockport Workshop, 2017

This work is funded by the National Science Foundation under grants 0918449, 1304485, 1348530, 1503196, and 1512868.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in the materials
associated with this program are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.